The 2024-25 Pacers are among the many few groups in NBA historical past to make a deep playoff run with no designated No. 1 scoring choice. They’ve had Aaron Nesmith, Myles Turner, Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam take turns taking part in hero, with every scoring 20 or extra in a number of video games.
Remarkably, the Pacers have five players averaging at the very least 14.0 factors, and one other three giving them over 8.0 by 13 playoff video games. They’re the primary staff for the reason that 1991-92 Blazers to have their starters rating 10 or extra factors in eight totally different playoff video games.
Indiana’s equal-opportunity offense generally is a curse, simply as a lot as a blessing. In Sunday’s Recreation 3, for instance, the offense stagnated within the fourth quarter when six gamers tried a combined 19 shots, a technique that will have prevented any of them from catching hearth.
Throughout their wins in Video games 1 and a couple of, Nesmith (20 factors) and Siakam (13 factors) took over down the stretch, with Haliburton pushing the tempo. Nevertheless, most of their photographs had been inside the circulate of the offense. There weren’t many cases of both going ISO, a ability set Charles Barkley believes the Pacers have to probably win an NBA title.
“The Pacers aren’t going to beat you in the event that they play a half-court recreation,” Barkley said after Recreation 3. “Their offense is just not that good. They do not [have players] who can take over. They need to get out and run.”
To Barkley’s level, Siakam, Indiana’s main scorer, is averaging only 1.8 ISO points within the playoffs, considerably decrease than Jalen Brunson (5.6), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (5.5) and Anthony Edwards (5.3).
The aforementioned 1991-92 Blazers made an analogous Cinderella playoff run earlier than working into the Bulls within the NBA Finals. These Blazers, too, had six players averaging double-digit points, however their equal-opportunity offense was finally no match for Michael Jordan’s solo greatness.
One wonders if the identical destiny will befall these Pacers.
If these Pacers go the space, they’d be bucking a pattern and probably paving the way in which for extra groups to embrace an equal-opportunity offense. The 2003-04 Pistons had been the final to seize the NBA title with no celebrity scorer, however their superpower was protection.
